Emmanuel Lutheran Church

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 15

Revelation 19:1-10

It’s time to rejoice again this evening, not only because of the content of the text before us, but also because there’s nothing here that’s difficult to understand. It’s all very straightforward and full of joy. First, the true Church will rejoice in God’s judgment against the false Church (which we heard about last week). And then, the Church will rejoice even more. Because the Bridegroom soon will call us, and the great wedding day will finally arrive for the Lamb and His wife.

I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia!”

The great multitude in heaven, made up of both saints and angels, cries out, Alleluia! We’re so used to singing that word. It’s hard to believe this is the only time the word is used in the whole New Testament, four times here in this chapter. It’s a Hebrew word, Hallelujah!, used throughout the Psalms, but always just translated, “Praise the LORD!” Praise Yah, Yahweh, the only true God, the God who inspired the Holy Scriptures and who is described in the Holy Scriptures! John’s use of the Hebrew word of praise here in Revelation shows the connection between the Old Testament Church and the New, that it’s really one great Church—all believers in Christ, either before He came or after.

Why is heaven praising the LORD? Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.”

Glory, honor, and power belong to the Lord our God. But also “salvation.” He saves His people from their enemies. He saved us from sin, from death, and from the devil by Christ’s atoning death and by applying it to us through Baptism and faith. We already praise our God for that, day after day after day. But on the Last Day, the Church will praise Him for saving us from the false Church, the apostate Church, the great harlot, the Antichrist within the Church who “corrupted the earth with her fornication.” While pretending to teach the Christian faith, the apostate Church actually leads people to commit spiritual fornication, to trust in all sorts of false gods and a false version of Christ. Last week we heard about the final destruction of Babylon. Tonight we hear the Church’s response to that destruction. It’s one of joy and celebration. Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!

Ironically, there are two extensions of the Antichristian Church that often teach opposing lessons, both of which are wrong. On the one hand, you have people within the Church who are vindictive, who love to mock and ridicule and take haughty pleasure in the downfall of those whom they consider to be enemies. They may even seek to take revenge themselves against those who have wronged them. That’s wrong and unchristian. It’s a false version of Christianity. On the other hand, you have others who are so wishy-washy, so “evangelical” that they reject any notion of vengeance, any idea that God will actually punish His enemies. That’s equally wrong and unchristian. Here in this reading, we have the truth presented very simply. The saints and angels in heaven have been praying for judgment and for God’s vengeance on those who persecuted the saints. Back in chapter six the souls of the martyrs were crying out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Here in chapter 19, their question is finally answered. God will judge and take vengeance on the great harlot. And the Church in heaven will not mourn over it. It will rejoice, not arrogantly, not spitefully, but justly. Because God is just and demands justice. The only way to escape His just judgment is to take refuge in Christ Jesus, but the Antichristian Church taught people not to take refuge in Christ alone, and so the true Church in heaven will agree with God’s judgment against the Church that deceived people into disbelieving in His Son.

And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”

The twenty-four elders, you recall, represented the whole Church of the Old and New Testaments, and the four living creatures represent the teachers of the Church. The Church in heaven praised God for judging the harlot, and the whole Church in heaven and on earth responds, Amen! Alleluia! The Last Day will not be a day when Christians are mourning over the destruction of the wicked. In the perfection of holiness, we will be rejoicing over the destruction of everyone who stood against our God.

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!

More praise and rejoicing on the Last Day, even louder than before. Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! That is, He alone reigns. Now, for a time, the devil has a kingdom here on earth. He is the “prince of this world.” Now, for a time, darkness reigns, and the kingdom of the Antichrist prospers, and the Church on earth has to put up with living in enemy territory. But not forever. In the end, God alone will reign, and the devil and his allies will have no power at all.

The believers continue, Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”

This is the long-awaited wedding banquet that Jesus talked about in His parables, the feast that the Father prepared for His Son, the wedding hall where the ten virgins waited with their lamps to receive the Bridegroom and His bride, the holy Christian Church. This is the resurrection of the dead, when Christ comes to take His believers to Himself in heaven. John again refers to Jesus here as the Lamb, the sacrificial Lamb who shed His blood in order to cleanse us from our sins so that we could stand beside Him forever in this perfect “marriage.”

St. Paul talks about this marriage in Ephesians 5: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

John pictures that spotlessness and holiness here, too: And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. What are the “righteous acts of the saints”? That’s not a good translation, actually. Literally, it’s the “righteousnesses of the saints.” The saints, believers in Christ, have a twofold righteousness. We have the righteousness of Christ that is given us in Holy Baptism, by faith, through the forgiveness of our sins. That is the righteousness by which we are justified. But we also have the beginning of righteousness that we call “sanctification,” righteous thoughts and intentions, righteous words and deeds, patiently bearing the cross and enduring the suffering that comes with being a Christian in an unchristian world. The Church will be forever dressed in that twofold righteousness, fine linen that God gave to her and enabled her to wear, not that she manufactured herself.

Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.”

Blessed are those who are called! Now, when Jesus told that parable about the wedding banquet, many were called, but few were chosen, because many who were called didn’t want to come! But here the angel telling John to write down this trustworthy saying of God is talking about those who are called and who actually come, who actually believe in Christ and persevere in faith until the end. Blessed are they!, he says. Because this marriage supper of the Lamb is the best thing you can imagine, better than the best thing you can imagine. This is Paradise. This is what “going to heaven” is all about, the coming together of all believers of all times with Christ, the Lamb of God, our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Lord.

And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!

John isn’t allowed to worship the created angel. Only God is to be worshiped. We should view the holy angels as fellow servants of John and of “his brothers who have the testimony of Jesus.” In a direct sense, that refers to the ministers who have been entrusted with preaching about Jesus as witnesses. In that regard, heavenly angels and human “angels” have the same task, to proclaim, not our own ideas, but the Word of God, and to proclaim, in particular, the Lord Jesus—His life, His words and teachings, His compassion, His atoning death, and His glorious resurrection. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. That is, it’s proclaiming Jesus that is the heart and soul of prophecy, of all proclamation about God. If the preaching doesn’t revolve around Jesus, then it isn’t Christian preaching at all.

As we struggle with the world in these last days, prepare for the celebration that’s coming. It isn’t quite time yet for the full-blown, untainted rejoicing to begin. It isn’t quite time yet to celebrate. But we can anticipate the celebration, because it’s coming. When we know something awful is coming, we certainly know how to dread it ahead of time. But we know that something wonderful is coming: God’s final victory over the Antichrist and the marriage supper of the Lamb. Knowing that, let us continue to hear the call to attend the wedding supper of the Lamb. Let the certainty of that supper get you through the difficult days ahead. And let us not allow anything in this world to get in the way of our arrival at that feast. Amen.

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 14

Revelation 18:1-24

We talked about Babylon last week. Let’s review. (Much of this will sound similar to what we talked about last week.) Babylon was the name of the actual city that persecuted the Church of Israel during Old Testament times, the city that actually conquered the people of Israel, destroyed Jerusalem, and held them captive for 70 years. Here in the Book of Revelation, “Babylon” is the symbolic name for the city of Rome, which was the actual city that persecuted the Church after the time of Christ, both from a secular angle as well as from a spiritual one.

And then Rome itself became symbolic of the Roman papacy and of the whole apostate Church, whether located in Rome or not. For nearly three hundred years, the Roman emperors persecuted the Christian Church, openly threatening, brutally torturing, and killing Christians by the thousands. After that, the Church got in bed with the Roman government, and for a time the outward persecutions ceased. But over the centuries the spiritual corruption and persecutions grew. And the Roman Church used the power of the Roman Empire to squash dissent, to commit every form of wickedness, to burn heretics at the stake, to silence the Gospel, and to bring a corrupted form of Christianity to the New World during the 15^th and 16^th centuries.

Around the same time, the Church of England was formed, outwardly in opposition to the Roman Church, but in reality it shared many of the same false doctrines and false practices. They were and are part of the apostate Church, tied to the government, and they, too, put Christians to death. Other churches began to form, supposedly in “protest” against Rome, and yet they, too, were inspired by the glory of Rome and imitated many of her false practices. (The Lutheran Church, by the way, was not immune to the false ideas of the apostate Church, but they never put dissenters to death. But they have, at times, wrongly excommunicated teachers of the truth.) The Thirty Years War was waged in Europe in the 17^th century, still within the jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Empire. And the Spanish Inquisition, which started already in the 1400’s and resulted in the torture and death of tens of thousands of people, lasted until 1834—less than two hundred years ago. Then you had other atrocities committed here in our country and in other parts of the world in the name of Christ, or under the cover of the Church, many of them committed against children. We’ve seen governments all over supposedly acting in the name of Christianity, committing atrocities, from Nazi Germany, to modern Russia, to the United States of America as it pushes abortion and LGBTQ agendas, not only here, but in foreign countries as well, all while still clinging to a veneer of Christianity, with our Roman Catholic president and most of our congress (nearly 90%!) being made up of men and women who identify as Christian.

Look at the havoc that has been wreaked in the world and the blood that has been shed in the world in the name of a false Christ as the Antichristian Church and the Antichristian government have worked hand in hand to corrupt the true Christian faith, to silence the saints, to punish those who hold to the true faith, and even to persecute unbelievers unjustly while acting in the name of Christ, thus giving a bad name to Christ and to His true Church!

What we see in tonight’s vision, very simply, is a prophecy of the imminent ruin of the apostate Church that is responsible for all this.

Just as in the previous chapter, John paints Babylon as rich, luxurious, glorious, engaged with all the nations of the earth, engaged in both politics and in business. She thinks of herself as a queen. No one can compare to her. No one can ever bring her down. She’s the envy of everyone.

That certainly fits with the Roman Church. It fits with the megachurches, too, and with the televangelists, and with all of the churches that have promised or taken pride in earthly size, wealth, prosperity, and strength.

But her plagues will come in one day. She’ll appear to be going strong until that day comes, and then she’ll receive the Lord’s judgments all at once. She’ll be burned with fire. Because strong is the Lord God who judges her…because in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.

In our time and place in history, we may not feel the weight of the apostate Church crushing us as other Christians have over the centuries. We don’t see in our modern times the burning of heretics at the stake, or the selling of indulgences, or any physical harm being done anymore by the Church, at least, not on a large scale. And the wealth that has always characterized the apostate Church isn’t as exclusive as it used to be, isn’t as drastic of a contrast as it used to be. There’s lots of wealth going around these days, especially in our country. But the harm done to souls by false doctrine and by false ideas of heaven, of hell, of the devil and his demons, of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit, and of what it means to be a Christian, is as great as it has ever been. And the lack of physical persecution simply lulls people into a false sense of security, as if you no longer had anything to be watchful for or leery of.

The days of casual Christianity are over, where it’s a small part of a person’s life, a background reality, a family tradition, nothing more. Our opening hymn had each of us asking ourselves the pointed question, “Am I a soldier of the cross?” You need to be! We have to be so vigilant that we don’t become part of the apostate Church, knowing God’s Word better each day. And to those who are linked to a false-teaching Church, the Lord calls out in earnest, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. And as you’re being vigilant, also rejoice, because the false Church is about to fall, and the people of God will soon be safe from all her threats, from all her tricks, and from all her temptations. Babylon will surely fall, and those who live by faith in Christ Jesus will surely stand forever. Amen.

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 13

Revelation 17:1-18

There are too many details in Revelation 17 for us to talk about in a short sermon. And, in all honesty, it may not be possible or even wise to try to explain away every detail in this chapter. Because the overarching message is clear enough, and important enough for us to focus on: The kingdoms of the world will always be the devil’s instruments to attack the true Church of Christ, and the apostate Church, led by the Antichrist within the visible assembly of the Church, will work together with the kingdoms of the world to snuff out the true religion. But they will ultimately fail.

John sees a vision of the great harlot, the great prostitute. She’s identified as “Babylon the Great” and as “that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” As we talked about last week, Babylon was the great city in the Old Testament that threatened God’s people of Israel and held them captive for a time. In the New Testament era, the great city that threatened God’s people, both physically and spiritually, both from a secular government angle and from a Church angle, is the city of Rome.

There’s no doubt that Rome is being talked about here. The angel says that the woman sits on “seven mountains.” John’s readers would have had no trouble identifying that as Rome, the famous “city of the seven hills.”  And for centuries, Rome was indeed the city which reigns over the kings of the earth, again, both on the secular side in the Roman Empire and the later Holy Roman Empire, and on the spiritual side, as it eventually became (and still is!) the seat of the man who claimed to reign over all Christians everywhere, the seat of the Papacy.

So the woman in this vision, the great harlot, represents the Roman Papacy, the true Antichrist, and the beast on which the woman sits represents the secular beast, the Roman Empire itself, which evolved into the so-called Holy Roman Empire. The woman is described as THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. The “harlotry” here is spiritual harlotry or unfaithfulness, also known as idolatry. It includes every form of supposedly Christian teaching that leads people to trust in man instead of in God: to trust in man’s leadership, in man’s intercessions, in man’s works, in man’s protection, in man’s teachings and traditions. It’s every form of supposedly Christian teaching that causes people to focus on human desires, human likes, human beliefs. And so, with that understanding, it certainly includes much of what’s taught under the Roman Papacy.

But it isn’t restricted to the Roman Catholic Church. I remember when we lived in Puerto Rico, where Roman Catholicism was still very popular, there were some Evangelical churches who would print flyers and plaster them all over the cars in a parking lot—flyers with the title, Rome is the great harlot! Another popular version of that is the idea that, if it’s Roman Catholic, it’s bad! Well, the Papacy may be the great harlot, but the woman is called here the “mother of harlots.” Every false version of Christianity can be traced back to Rome, because it was Rome who taught everyone to trust, not in the Scriptures, but in man, and that’s what all false doctrine does, at the end of the day. It causes people to trust, not in the actual teaching of Holy Scripture, but in made-up human doctrines. It causes people to focus on what they do for God instead of on what He has done for us in Christ. It causes people to focus on how they like to worship God instead of on how God desires to be worshiped. Such harlotry is found, not only in the Roman Church, but throughout so-called Protestantism as well.

We see the woman dressed in scarlet, just like the beast on which she sits. We see the apostate Church dressed like the world, becoming more and more like the world, in her teachings as well as in her practices. Oh, the world thinks women should be in charge of everything? Look at the church over the past many decades ordaining women as pastorettes. Oh, the world thinks homosexuality is great? Look at the church now endorsing such practices. Divorce? Fine! Sex outside of marriage? Fine! God’s Word is fallible? Agreed! And so on.

But the woman is also dressed in purple and wears fine pearls and holds out a golden cup to the world. She is a glorious Church, a big Church, as the woman sits on many waters, that is, on many nations. She appears elegant, attractive, and beautiful on the outside. Again, that applies as much to the Roman Catholic Church as it does to the Evangelical megachurch (or megasynod). But in truth, she’s a harlot. She is not faithful to God and His Word and His teaching, and she teaches the nations that her fake version of Christianity is the truth!

For a while, the unbelievers love her and join in with her! The kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. But eventually they grow of tired of her and the nations will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire as part of God’s judgment against her. And maybe we can see signs of that in our time. The nations of the world largely followed Christianity, usually in its idolatrous form—the nations have never embraced genuine Christian doctrine as a whole. There’s still a thin veneer of loyalty to the apostate Church among the rulers of the world. But in our day, it seems that most of the nations of the world, most of the rulers of the world, are beginning to reject every form of Christianity, even the antichristian forms of it.

Now, as for the heads, and the horns, and the kings that are mentioned in this vision, some have tried to connect them to specific rulers or kingdoms in history, and maybe there’s something to that, but we don’t have time to get into it here, and it’s really an insignificant thing to match up this horn to that king. It’s the overarching message that needs to get through: that the false-teaching, man-centered, man-idolizing Church is actually the greatest enemy of mankind. Because when people are introduced to a false version of who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him, it’s the worst kind of delusion. Because when the true version of Jesus is preached, people don’t bother even listening. They think they already know what Christianity is all about. Either they hate it and want nothing to do with it, or they fall in love with the false Christ they’ve been introduced to and want nothing to do with the real one.

That’s why the alliance between Christianity and the governments of the world has never been a healthy a thing, because whole societies are led away from the true Christ to a false version of Him, to a generic God who looks something like the Christian God but isn’t.

So, again, the overarching theme of this vision is that the false-teaching, man-centered, man-idolizing Church is actually the greatest enemy of mankind, and, that the false-teaching Church which has done so much damage to the true Church over the centuries, will eventually fall. The churches that have falsely represented Christ to the world and that have gloated over and persecuted the followers of the true Christ will be put to shame.

So we should be careful, shouldn’t we? We should be on guard against the false but attractive version of Christianity. We should know the Scriptures well enough that the false but attractive version of Christianity can’t move us from the truth of God’s Word. And we should take heart, because it’s not the size of the Church or the outward glory of the Church that identifies it as the true Church. It’s the church’s faithfulness to God’s Word and Sacraments, the presence of faith in Christ alone among her members, the love her members show to one another, and the Christ-like behavior of her members in the world. Let us be about those things! Amen.